The rough Bahama waters swallowed her daughter that late summer afternoon in 1999, but now LaNita Walker can rest.

For four years, Walker, of northeast Charlotte, sought to prove that a parasailing company in the Bahamas was responsible for her daughter's death. On Wednesday, a Florida jury awarded a judgment of $1.8 million in a U.S. District Court.

"The truth and justice for Tosha's memory had to be driven home," Walker said Thursday. "And now I can rest. I can rest understanding that Tosha's gone now."

Four years ago, Tosha Walker, 27, and friend Michael Young were flying through the air in a 32-foot parasail, amid the darkened skies of an approaching storm.

The pair, strapped together, grinned for a friend's camera before being launched into the air. About 10 minutes later, the cord snapped.

They hit the water with cutting force and went under. Tosha Walker lost consciousness and died at Doctor's Hospital in Nassau the same day. Young was cut and bruised, but survived.

"We were literally talking about what we would do if the rope broke," Charles Matiella, a friend on the boat, remembered. "As I turned and looked up at them, two or three seconds after, the rope snapped."

Of the jury's award, $1.5 million was allotted for the past and future pain LaNita Walker suffered from losing her daughter.

Tosha Walker, a 1990 graduate of West Charlotte High School, was a vibrant leader who rooted for the underdog, said her mother, who lives on Dougherty Drive.

A Baltimore preacher, whose church Tosha Walker had attended while at Howard University in the mid-'90s, told her mother, "Tosha is like my daughter, and I want to preach her funeral."

LaNita Walker's lawyers from Haggard, Parks, Haggard and Bologna in Coral Gables, Fla., convinced a jury during the six-day trial that the Sheraton Grand hotel was liable for the incident involving the Sea & Ski Ocean Sports vendor, which rents property from the hotel. Defense attorneys claimed the hotel did little more than provide the vendor's site, said Walker's lawyers.

Defense attorney Layton Mank declined to comment, pending a motion that will be ruled on in a week, Mank said. Jeannete Bologna, one of Walker's lawyers, said the motion was standard procedure and did not think it was likely that the verdict would be overturned. "The jury ruled, and a verdict is a verdict," she said.

Tosha Walker and Washington Urban League members flew from Maryland to Miami to take a roundtrip Carnival cruise to Nassau on Aug. 20, 1999, according to court documents. On Aug. 21, the group boarded a ferry from Nassau to Paradise Island and ended up on the beach in front of the four-star Sheraton Grand Hotel. Court documents state that Sea & Ski workers solicited the group for parasail rides. The group initially declined, but eventually four of the five went.

Noting the rain and 23 mph wind, crew members advised Tosha Walker and Young to ride together, Walker's attorneys said.

LaNita Walker's court complaint faults the operation for sending Walker and Young up in tandem, rather than postponing the ride. It also states the parasail equipment was in "disrepair and unfit" for use.

LaNita Walker's efforts in 2000 to criminally prosecute the Sea & Ski operators in the Bahamas did not go well. She said she was frustrated by what she saw as a nepotistic courtroom.

"It was a big joke," she said. "The guy (who testified for the defense) lied and wasn't the right guy (driving the boat)."

The media picked up the story, which caught the attention of Inside Edition and Good Morning America. Walker also phoned two high-profile attorneys, former O.J. Simpson defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. and Washington attorney Ralph Lotkin.

"It's the injustice over (in the Bahamas) that prompted me to go further for Tosha, because she was quite a young lady," LaNita Walker said.

But she said that within a year she dismissed Cochran because she didn't think he was giving her case enough attention. Lotkin, however, continued to serve her.

"I think (this judgment) will cause the hotel and the governments who regulate these agencies to re-evaluate how they do business and how they're regulated," Bologna said. Not enough regulations govern tourist activities like parasailing, Bologna and Walker said.

"And this verdict is a wake-up call," Bologna said.
 

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Jackie Mah can be reached at jmah@charlotteobserver.com